They Told Her He Was Dead
by DrChaseIsLove
Summary: Brennan thought she could compartmentalize. She thought she could separate his death and the feelings that had accompanied it from her work. She thought she needed to move on, when in actuality all she needed was to slow down and deal with the sentiments.


Jump, Juliet

A/N- Hey everyone! This is a story that I've had in mind for a long time, but only recently gotten the chance to write. It didn't exactly go the way I had planned, but I really enjoyed writing it and I think it turned out pretty well. I know it's a bit depressing, but keep reading at it will all make sense. Don't forget to review!

Disclaimer: I don't own _Bones_, or the season would have started a long time ago.

**They Told her he Was Dead**

They told her he was dead.

She had paced the halls of the cold, empty hospital for hours, thinking if only he made it through surgery he would be okay. It was a false hope. A doctor pushed through the steel doors, and even someone who had no faith in psychology like Temperance Brennan could read the pained expression on his face.

_There was nothing they could do._ She comforted herself as he walked toward her, and suddenly the distance seemed like miles.

The doctor said he was dead.

_We did all we could._ The man put his hand on her shoulder and spoke the words no person wants to hear. _We're so sorry._

Apologies are funny things. They are so common that they almost lose meaning. At that moment Temperance Brennan highly doubted that the doctor was sorry about the loss of a man he had never truly met. She doubted that he was sorry about losing a stranger who had touched every heart he came across.

What could she do?

Brennan couldn't see him. She couldn't talk to him, argue with him, or share his Thai food. Temperance Brennan was only human and therefore could not find any way of raising Seeley Booth from the dead.

She could, however, go back to work. In times of emotional struggle Brennan always had her studies. Bones couldn't die—they were already dead—and they most certainly couldn't let her down the way he had. Bones couldn't make promises in the first place.

The only thing that stood in the way of Brennan clearing her mind was her team.

They told her he was dead.

The entire staff of the Jeffersonian was dumbfounded to find her back at work, only hours after hearing the news of Booth's death. Cam and Angela alike tried to comfort her, only to find that Brennan expressed no emotion. She's trying to compartmentalize, they told Sweets.

The psychologist told her he was dead.

Brennan thought she could compartmentalize. She thought she could separate his death and the feelings that had accompanied it from her work. She thought she needed to move on, when in actuality all she needed was to slow down and deal with the sentiments.

But Temperance Brennan wasn't one to slow down. In fact, she didn't stop moving from when she left the hospital until she crashed.

Angela had escorted her home, forcing her upstairs and into the apartment, where she sat her best friend down on the couch.

She told her he was dead.

But she also told her it was okay to be upset; that compartmentalizing couldn't solve a problem of this magnitude. There wasn't a compartment for the emotions the death of a loved one brought.

_But why?_ Brennan questioned._ I was able to separate myself from my mother's death. Why should Booth's be more difficult?_

Angela smiled a mysterious grin and held her friend's hand._ Love, sweetie; you were in love with him._

_Impossible_. She thought. They were polar opposites—the only thing that held them together was their job, and with it all the principles their work demonstrated, and Thai food, and their broken pasts. In fact, the more Brennan thought about Booth, the more she remembered what their relationship had been. It had been pie and coffee, bad guys and chases, kisses and Christmas trees, and above all it had been taking a bullet to save a partner's life. With a sickening realization Temperance Brennan realized how significant their relationship had been, and as she sat on her couch with her best friend she realized that she was in love with Seeley Booth.

Lost in her thoughts about Booth she momentarily forgot the events of that day.

She had to remind herself he was dead.

Dead as in gone. Dead as in shot. Suddenly a wave of misery overcame her, flooding the compartments she so neatly organized her feelings in. It was tidal wave of passion and grief; breaking down the walls and mixing her emotions as if they had been poured in a blender.

Angela, finding Brennan completely incoherent, laid her on the couch, and moved to the armchair, where she promptly slipped into a sleep that was tortured by nightmares of shotguns and stalkers.

He's dead, she muttered in her sleep.

Laying on the couch, Brennan was not quite asleep. She was merely thinking; something she did quite frequently.

But this time, her thinking was different. This time there was no logic involved—all of her thoughts were driven by emotions, and the emotions were not her friends. These sentiments were intangible to the smartest of minds, but were things that Booth had comprehended so well.

Incapable of coming to grips with what she was feeling, Temperance Brennan lost all sense of judgment. In a wave of delirium, she got up and moved swiftly to the balcony, careful not to wake Angela.

Outside in the cool night if had began to rain, the crystal drops falling down her face and masking her tears as she moved to the railing. Leaning over the edge she studied the ground below, still picturing Howard Epps's contorted body lying on the sidewalk. How fitting that he had jumped from that place; the very spot that Temperance Brennan planned to step off of.

Without Seeley Booth, she realized she was nothing. Booth was dead, and now what was she supposed to do?

Haunted by grief she gripped the railing harder, recalling his last moments. Then, remembering that she had not had the chance to tell him she loved him, she became possessed by regret and turned behind her to get a patio chair to jump from.

In her moments of delirium, Brennan had not heard the knocking at the door or the turning of the knob as someone entered. But now that she had turned to the open balcony door, she came face to face with what she was sure must be a ghost.

Brennan scrounged enough logic out of her jumbled mind to find that it was not a ghost, but a man of flesh and blood, standing there in the doorway. _Booth._

_They told me you were dead._ She whispered.

The tears returned newly to her eyes, and as she realized that their time was all to precious she made a bold move, and didn't give it a second thought.

With a smooth motion she placed her hands around his neck and placed her lips on his. After a moment of disbelief that their feelings were finally out in the open he returned the kiss, sweeping his tongue across her lips, speaking of their passion and regret.

Finally they pulled apart, the rain stopping now, and the breeze blew across the balcony. Brennan could feel the sun come out in her mind and slowly her emotions began to separate themselves again, returning to their rightful places.

_I love you._ He whispered, keeping hold of her hands. _And I'm sorry, Temperance. I'm so sorry._

Angela, hearing Booth cross the room, woke to find him and Brennan kissing on the balcony. When she heard him whisper the three words she had known to be true for all too long, she shook her head and laid back down, knowing that if she was seeing Booth alive and those two kissing, it must have been a dream.

After all, they told her he was dead.

A/N- So that's it! See? It had a happy ending! Anyways I hope you liked it.

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